Most people can avoid facing their mortality for quite awhile. Sadly, this robs them of really feeling the need for Jesus; and consequently robs them of the joys of living with a God-given purpose among other things. Still, avoidance is the coping mechanism of choice. You learn it from your parents and it sort of works.
Death, in whatever form it presents to you, eventually penetrates the denial coping mechanism. Whether war, or pandemic, or just getting old, the fact that our physical life will and must come to end corners you. Now what? Even worse, sometimes the luster so comes off of living that we despair of life and just want to die, not really sure of what comes next. Covid-19 can hit you either way. You see loved ones dying and it is all out desperation to not allow it. Even if the person has dementia and terrible health otherwise, we can’t let them go if we are not prepared. On the flip side, social isolation might become the new normal. The joys we once depended on might become too dangerous. Depression slips in.
I have tried in this blog to paint a picture of what the Bible shares about life after death. Some of it is frightening. You want to avoid Sheol and Hell at all costs. Some is absolutely beautiful. Heaven and the New Earth will be the phases of our existence where we begin to truly live. Rather than deny the reality of death, live knowing that our current existence can be made meaningful and even joyful by what comes next.
But is it real? Think of all the worldviews and what they say about death and life after death. Think about their explanation of the world, humanity, our history, our consciousness and the spiritual world. What proof can they offer for their view? What holes exist? Do they sink the ship?
The Christian worldview has history (especially surrounding Jesus), archaeology, prophecy, the complexity and order of life, a coherent view of consciousness, eyewitnesses of miraculous events (with reasonable credibility), including resurrections from the dead. It also has corroborating evidence from Near Death Experiences. Ultimately, it has the ongoing witness of the Holy Spirit to those who do not close their minds.
Every other worldview seems fatally flawed and unlikely if not impossible to me. I can understand why the adherents of other worldviews hold to those views; but culture, willful ignorance, wanting what you want regardless of proof, and resistance to the idea of God are pretty foolish reasons not to examine everything with an open mind when there is so much at stake for you personally.
Christianity is more than wishful thinking that can help you through tough times. It is an explanation of this life that works. I’m not saying that there are not unanswered questions, but they are not huge. When you understand what the Bible is communicating you have hope. Not “I hope so”, but a certainty of things you can’t see yet; and a certainty that you have been shown the way to life that endures in happiness forever.
afterdeathsite 